Tax the rich! The rich must pay their fair share! No more private jets! We keep hearing these refrains from our President and others on the left. Is our debt problem caused by the rich? Is our deficit problem caused by the rich? Is our spending problem caused by the rich. Recently, I happened upon an interview of a gentleman named Robert Frank. He wrote a book call “Richistan”.

It seems that he took a pencil to paper to calculate the affect on our deficit and debt “taxing the rich”to solve our problem of spending would have. His calculation is stunning and would suggest that our President and the left need to break out their calculators – their solution simply does not work. I have always believed that the left attended the voodoo school of economics and maybe I am correct. Really, the far left progressives are not as much concerned about economics as they are about insuring that the few dictate to the many, how to live, how to work, and how to play – economics and facts just get in their way.

In the interview, Mr. Frank was asked “If we reverse the Bush tax cuts would that solve our problem.

His answer: this would yield $100B annually against our $1.65T annual deficit.

What if we taxed all those folks making $250,000 annually and up at a 100% tax rate – take all their earnings?

Answer: this would yield $900B annually, but would still leave us short of the $1.65T annual deficit.

What if we confiscated all the wealth of the Forbes list of wealthy Americans?

Answer: This would net $1.6T and would solve the deficit for only one year. (deficit, under our spending ways is annual)

How about if we were to end that corporate jet depreciation?

Answer: This would yield a couple billion against a $1.65T deficit.

We owe more than $14 Trillion and add to that debt at the rate of $1.65 Trillion annually. We are increasing our debt at nearly 12% per year. When will the reckless spending end? We need to end the spending before we have any hope of lowering our debt. To lower our debt we need a surplus every year and not a $1.65T deficit. In Washington they are wringing their hands over proposals that might yield $2Trillion over ten years. They do the Irish Jig if they achieve a 1% cut from the spending growth rate. These “great” plans will not solve our annual deficit. More taxes will not solve our deficit. Only sustained substantial spending cuts are the answer.

We, the federal government, should be taking from the economy – the taxpayers – just enough to provide the basic obligations of the federal government as found in the Constitution.